For years, the federally endangered San Mateo thornmint was known from only one location at Edgewood Natural Preserve in Redwood City. In the last two seasons, Creekside Science has seeded three new locations within the Preserve, bringing the total number of San Mateo thornmint to 7,549 in May 2017, its highest since we began monitoring in 2007. This January, we seeded a new location at nearby Pulgas Ridge, thanks to funding and support from San Francisco Water, Power and Sewer. We hope to be instrumental in creating the five self-sustaining populations required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Recovery Plan to downlist this taxon. Other partners include Friends of Edgewood, Yerba Bioadvocacy, San Mateo County Parks, California Native Plant Society, U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden, San Mateo County Parks Foundation, Mellam Family Foundation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

]]>https://creeksidescience.com/2018/01/05/reintroduction-of-san-mateo-thornmint-to-pulgas-ridge/feed/0jimmycreeksidesciencecomACDUThe Bay Checkerspot Butterfly Returns to San Bruno Mountain!https://creeksidescience.com/2017/03/06/the-bay-checkerspot-butterfly-returns-to-san-bruno-mountain/
https://creeksidescience.com/2017/03/06/the-bay-checkerspot-butterfly-returns-to-san-bruno-mountain/#respondMon, 06 Mar 2017 23:55:05 +0000http://creeksidescience.com/?p=1130The federally threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly was extirpated from San Bruno Mountain in the mid 1980s. On March 2 and 3 2017, Creekside Science biologists collected 3630 caterpillars from Coyote Ridge in San Jose and released them on the main ridge of San Bruno Mountain. The larvae immediately started munching English plantain, a non-native used by other closely related checkerspot populations. The cool coastal environment, robust perennial hostplant, and extensive habitat are encouraging aspects of this project. This project may show that we can reintroduce extirpated species without the technical challenges and expense of restoring all historical conditions.

Find the very hungry caterpillar!

Many thanks to the Disney Butterfly Conservation Initiative, US Fish and Wildlife Service, San Mateo County Parks and Recreation, and SF Bay Wildlife Society for financial and professional support.

Reintroduction high above San Francisco International Airport. Bay checkerspot flight #1 will depart in late March!

]]>https://creeksidescience.com/2017/03/06/the-bay-checkerspot-butterfly-returns-to-san-bruno-mountain/feed/0jimmycreeksidesciencecomBCB_Larva_lanceolata_munch_SBM 3-1-2017 4-51-20 PM (1)BCB_Larva_SBM_SF 3-2-2017 5-23-37 PMKirra_SBM_SFO_larva 3-2-2017 4-46-55 PMCreekside Science Quino checkerspot workhttps://creeksidescience.com/2017/02/10/creekside-science-quino-checkerspot-work/
https://creeksidescience.com/2017/02/10/creekside-science-quino-checkerspot-work/#respondFri, 10 Feb 2017 21:34:15 +0000http://creeksidescience.com/?p=1125Creekside Science is working in collaboration with numerous agencies and institutions, including the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, San Diego Zoo, San Diego State University and Earth Discovery Institute, on reversing the decline of the critically endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha quino) in San Diego County. Dr. Weiss has gone down to San Diego County a few times for field work, and he will be going again soon when the Quino checkerspot butterflies start flying. Please click here for more information.
]]>https://creeksidescience.com/2017/02/10/creekside-science-quino-checkerspot-work/feed/0jimmycreeksidesciencecomFine-scale modeling of bristlecone pine treeline position in the Great Basin, USAhttps://creeksidescience.com/2017/01/10/fine-scale-modeling-of-bristlecone-pine-treeline-position-in-the-great-basin-usa/
https://creeksidescience.com/2017/01/10/fine-scale-modeling-of-bristlecone-pine-treeline-position-in-the-great-basin-usa/#respondTue, 10 Jan 2017 19:01:40 +0000http://creeksidescience.com/?p=1071A multi-year collaboration between Western Washington University (Andrew Bunn, Jamis Bruening, Tyler Tran), The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at University of Arizona (Matthew Salzer) and Creekside Science (Stu Weiss, Jimmy Quenelle) culminates with the publication of this paper!

It was an honor to work with this dedicated team over time and over diverse terrain, from various lab locations to the AGU conference in San Francisco to the peaks, ridges and canyons of the Sierra, White Mountains and Snake Range.

Congratulations to Jamis and Tyler for recently earning their Master’s Degrees

from Western Washington University for their work on this project! Enjoy the paper!

The primary goal of this project is to conserve the long-term integrity of winter roosting habitat for monarch butterflies at Ardenwood by developing comprehensive site stewardship plans.

]]>https://creeksidescience.com/2017/01/09/ardenwood-historic-farm-monarch-habitat-assessment/feed/0jimmycreeksidesciencecomimg_20170106_161523657img_20170106_134144034_hdrCreekside Chief Scientist Flies High Once Again in the Name of Monarch Stewardshiphttps://creeksidescience.com/2016/12/28/creekside-chief-scientist-flies-high-once-again-in-the-name-of-monarch-stewardship/
https://creeksidescience.com/2016/12/28/creekside-chief-scientist-flies-high-once-again-in-the-name-of-monarch-stewardship/#respondThu, 29 Dec 2016 01:11:07 +0000http://creeksidescience.com/?p=1041In December 2016 Creekside Chief Scientist Dr. Stuart Weiss was hoisted high into the sky by way of a bucket truck to facilitate Monarch habitat assessment work at Rob Hill in the Presidio. Creekside Science is engaged in canopy characterization to assess seasonal solar radiation, temperature and wind conditions in Monarch butterfly overwintering habitat.

Added nitrogen drives annual grass invasions on serpentine soils and threatens many of the covered species, especially the Bay checkerspot butterfly (Weiss 1999). Indirect impacts of continued N-deposition on natural communities are anticipated to result from the development covered under the NCCP and serpentine habitat types are the focus of preservation and management/enhancement actions to offset the effects of nitrogen deposition. All other land cover types in the permit area have also been identified as sensitive or potentially sensitive to N-deposition (Weiss 2006, Fenn et al. 2010), including northern mixed and serpentine chaparral, mixed oak woodland, foothill pine-oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, redwood forest, California annual grassland, valley oak woodland, blue oak woodland, coast live oak forest and woodland, freshwater marsh, seasonal wetland, and ponds. Understanding and monitoring this primary driver of ecological change is the primary goal of this project.

Consistent elevated nitrate in shallow groundwater is a prime symptom of terrestrial nitrogen saturation (Fenn and Poth 1999, Fenn et al. 2008). Excess N leaches below the root zone as nitrate. Low-productivity serpentine soils have very limited capacity to retain N (Fenn et al 2010). There are dozens of springs fed by serpentine grassland catchments within the Plan Area and beyond, and spatial gradients and trends in N-deposition can be monitored efficiently through sampling of selected springs for nitrate.

Stu and city staff from Pacific Grove successfully completed another year of adaptive management at Monarch Grove Sanctuary. The monarchs returned (11,500 Thanksgiving count) and are taking advantage of the wind shelter provided by blue gum trees planted in 1999, and sipping from the nectar gardens. Stu continues to network with other monarch scientists around the world.

On December 4, 2015, Creekside staff and Edgewood volunteers seeded three additional colonies of federal- and state-endangered San Mateo thornmint at Edgewood Natural Preserve. These additional colonies are key to preventing extinction of this annual forb which exists in the wild only at one additional colony at Edgewood. Funding for this project has been generously provided by the Friends of Edgewood.

By January 8, 2016, all 80 square meter plots had some germinated thornmint in them.

A seed increase project continues at the Creekside Growing Facility, where Castilleja are grown with Achillea millefolium hosts. Seeding is the preferred method of restoration while concerns about Phytophthora or other pathogens in nursery stock exist. On December 3 and 8, 2015, a total of 2100 seeds were planted at the facility.